Dr. Maria Belodubrovskaya

Biography

Maria Belodubrovskaya’s current work focuses on the history, theory, and aesthetics of Soviet cinema. Her book, "According to Plan: Filmmaking in Stalin's Russia" (Cornell University Press, 2017), presents a revisionist history of Soviet filmmaking during the Stalin era (1930–1953) and conducts an institutional study of the ideological structures of cultural production. The work examines five key institutions of Soviet cinema—policymaking, production planning, directing, screenwriting, and censorship—to illustrate the complexities of building a mass-producing culture industry within the constraints of artisanal production methods and weak control mechanisms. She is also working on a book titled "Jolly Fellows: Film Aesthetics and the Pleasures of Socialist Realism," which addresses Soviet film aesthetics and contrasts the narrative approaches of Soviet cinema with the conventions of Hollywood. Her additional research explores fundamental questions in film aesthetics and includes a series of articles dealing with narrative pleasure and the cinematic techniques of Sergei Eisenstein.

Research Interests